Saturn Shen-Mue & other unreleased Saturn talk

Only the Sonic Gems One AFAIK

 

There was an interview on a website, cant remember which one, where they interviewed yu suzuki or a member of am2 that stated at the end of it they had a portion where they asked them about it but were told by sega they were not allowed to publish that part of the interview.

Meanwhile the reason genki was chosen to port virtua fighter 3 to dreamcast was that yu suzuki said his team was busy with another project at the time and felt they would be the best to do the port since some of the members were former staff on his team.

 

Right. They were probably the worst slackers, so they were kicked out from AM2 all the way to Genki. Hence, the shitty port.

 

I kinda liked Genki's Multi Racing Championship on the n64, in a period when proper racers werent really there. Top gear Rally wasnt half-bad for its time on the console either (as a competative product against MRC) damn, off topic again

 

Honestly their best work has and always be the shutoko battle serise (tokyo xtreme in the west). Except for the ps2 versions as well as the psp one. Hopefully shuttoko battle x on 360 will be better.Ubisoft anoucned its releasing it in the U.S. under the name import tuner.

 

That was the now-infamous Kikizo interview, during which Yu Suzuki revealed first time details regarding both finished versions of Saturn Virtua Fighter 3 and confirmed that AM2 were busy making this game the best they could - that is why Genki was asked to handle the Dreamcast edition, and following their poor results (along with the fact AM2's great work failed to win the approval of management) he felt very upset.

One thing I definitely know for sure is that Digital Dance Mix isn't the missing link some people continue to believe, as the specifications for Saturn VF3 (which may have somehow found their way into the public domain from what was left on the cutting room floor from the incident mentioned in the last paragraph) were nothing like the high-resolution, 60fps Namie Amuro showcase. However, it's possible the close-up detailed polygonal models - as described in the first revision - were of a similar quality to those seen in this glorified tech demo.

Sonic The Fighters was definitely finished as a Saturn conversion, but was turned down for release because somebody within Sega of America didn't like the idea of the company's mascot being used in such a violent way - Tom Kalinske or Bernie Stolar, perhaps? As I mentioned earlier, it was briefly given 5th May 1998 as its Japanese street date, though clearly this didn't happen. Besides, like VF3 it's not that great a loss since elements from it were incorporated into Fighters Megamix... even if it would still have been welcome as a standalone title just to see how well the Saturn could manage such an ambitious conversion!

With something like VF3 it's unlikely AM2 would have allowed a sub-standard game to be unleashed, and considering their determination to get it out into the public I doubt the end result was too bad. Shame that Genki's poor effort was given priority, as the Saturn could have done a lot better had Sega continued supporting it for a few more months. Can you imagine Shenmue, translations of the last two Shining Force III scenarios and maybe even some high profile third-party titles such as Metal Gear Solid, Marvel VS Capcom or Resident Evil 2, all receiving flawless ports through the 4Mb RAM upgrade cartridge? AS is so often the case with Sega, you can't help but think of what might have been...

P.S. I would have uploaded those screenshots from the Dreamcast prototype of VF3tb, but they're too large - anybody care to provide a space for them?

 

being an arcade fan, could someone please highlight the differences of the DC and arcade version of VF3/tb? also, the inclusion of different camera angles is something not found in later VF games (eg first person cam). Finally, how close is model 3 to the katana/naomi boards? (processor type/make, memory etc would be nice too)

 

Send em to my email, borman18@gmail.com, Ill get them uploaded

 

Since when was Metal Gear Solid proposed for the Sega Saturn? Or are you just dreaming about what could have been?

 

There actually was some talk about Metal Gear Solid on DreamCast. I have no idea whether or not this was due to some people not understanding the info they were given, but for a while people talked about a PlayStation MGS upgrade for the DreamCast. Very much like Twin Snakes.

Was this project planned for DreamCast originally? Who the hell knows. I strongly doubt it. This was probably just some wishful thinking.

 

bleem!

You're not confusing an official Dreamcast release with the bleemcast! release of MGS are you?

 

Nah. I was actually going to mention the Bleemed version while writing the previous message, but I figured out we all know the emulator. I meant a DreamCast dedicated release. I heard some rumors years back. But like I said. Maybe someone mixed up the info back then. Konami was talking about a remake for a newer platform, someone ealse was talking about MGS on DreamCast through Bleem and it got all mixed up.

 

There was some weird PC ports that showed up on the DC release calender suddenly, and disappeared just as quick (Age of Empires 2, Metal Gear Solid being some examples). It is not quite as far out as you might think, since MGS got a PC release, and the DC has the WinCE libraries...

 

I know that Age of Empires was originally going to be released and was presumably started, but was then dropped for Age of Empires 2. Microsoft and Sega had quite a nice relationship going when the Dreamcast was in the works, but I suppose that the development of AoE2 wasn't quick enough to meet the Dreamcast's short lifespan. I was quite looking forward to it and it was one of the reasons I bought my DC mouse.

Perhaps that will be leaked one day?

 

Microsoft had the rights to port some Konami games to PC, the hopes to get a MGS port to DC came from there I think. On the other hand, Konami had the rights to port some MS games to the consoles, Age of Empires 2 was coming by Konami, I have some pics somewhere...

 

x

 

Speaking of PC ports, did Black & White leak in a playable version? I have the video clip on one of the demo discs that shows Black & White in action, though I have no idea whether or not it's DreamCast the game is played on.

 

Konami had many games in consideration for the Saturn, but unfortunately Metal Gear Solid was released on the PlayStation long after Sega's 32-bit console had been officially phased out so they decided against such plans. I've heard before that Sega objected to Snake's need to use cigarettes in specific parts of the game, though I can't really see why that would be an issue when Last Bronx and Duke Nukem 3D both appeared on the Saturn without censorship. The suggestion that MGS had been a possibility on the Dreamcast is new to me, yet at the same time porting the PC version doesn't seem too unlikely either.

To answer Barcode's questions, a member of the Dreamcast project team (whose name currently eludes me - can anyone help?) said to the UK official Sega Saturn Magazine from the console's launch party that it was approximately 1.5 times more powerful than Model 3, and that's after taking into account the fact it uses "conventional" three-sided polygons as opposed to the quadratic solution adopted by Sega in its previous hardware.

Also, you can't really compare the arcade version of Virtua Fighter 3tb with its console counterpart since they are two completely different games. To create the home conversion, Genki first reprogrammed the Model 3 original for NAOMI and then brought this over to Dreamcast. Because nearly everything had to be remade from scratch, there are many obvious changes in the character models, with some having their dimensions altered (though some improvements were made over prototype code, which I've now uploaded screenshots from). One thing Genki did radically alter was the polygon counts, and if you look carefully the fighters have significantly less detail in their arm/leg joints that result in some awful cases of texture stretching.

Finally, in the original Japanese release shadows often broke on uneven ground, although this was improved slightly for the game's European release. Had they not been striving instead to produce the ultimate final showcase for the Saturn (and sowing the proverbial seeds of what later became Shenmue), I've no doubt that AM2 could have developed a pixel-perfect conversion of Virtua Fighter 3tb. Even with the assistance of Yu Suzuki's team, Genki failed in this very challenge and gave many people reason to doubt the Dreamcast's power... along with the rough version of Sega Rally 2, but I've already explained why we should have given the group responsible for that game some slack!

 

Where? Where?

Like Pai's armpits in one of her winning poses. On DreamCast it looks as if some of the body was removed, giving this strange unnatural action figure look when after lifting the arm up, there's the empty space.

Oh, and one more thing about the Virtua Fighter 3 TB. There's this arena. It's like a cave with metal bars and these fire pits. There are some major glitches that you can spot there.

 

Due to its poor conversion and the system's awful pad design (well, for games like Virtua Fighter, at least), I've not exactly found many reasons lately to play VF3tb, so thanks for pointing out those additional flaws in this already terrible effort from Genki. Perhaps one day I will pluck up enough courage to endure the pain of experiencing VF3tb and create some type of comparison between the Japanese and European versions, maybe even providing a full breakdown of differences to the arcade original as well?

P.S. Despite all my previous negativity, I'm actually quite fond of their other work - especially the first Tokyo Extreme Racer, Super Magnetic Neo and Daytona USA 2001, even though the latter was co-developed with Amusement Vision. Maybe the bitterness of not getting to see AM2's ill-fated Saturn effort has tarnished my real view of the Dreamcast game? I should loosen up a little...